Swapping my Mainspring Housing

[Rich]

I don't know jack about the internals of my Colt Combat Commander but I have the factory Mainspring Housing on it now and I want to change to a flat, checkered one I just bought.

Question: Is it difficult to do? Can I do this myself? Should I leave the tinkering to a gunsmith?

Thanks-
Rich

[RickJZ]

very simple to do--- go to www.springfieldarmory.com and click under the instruction manual for the 1911 (its in pdf format). They give a diagram of changing the mainspring housing in case anyone wants to get rid of, or add an internal locking system whick they offer.

[happyguy]

It's so easy even a Caveman can do it.

http://www.sightm1911.com/

Regards,
Happyguy :)

[Kruzr]

Originally posted by RickJZ
very simple to do--- go to www.springfieldarmory.com and click under the instruction manual for the 1911 (its in pdf format). They give a diagram of changing the mainspring housing in case anyone wants to get rid of, or add an internal locking system whick they offer.
Not a goood reference for a Colt since there is no ILS and there is an cap retention pin in a regular, non-ILS MSH.

Field strip the gun, uncock the hammer. Put a rubber band around the grip safety, drift out the MSH pin from the dimpled side to the rounded side. Slide the new MSH and internals (you can use the ones in your Colt for the new MSH) and put the pin back in (again, from the dimpled side to the rounded one.) Take the rubber band off and you're done.

You can use a finishing nail driven part way into a block of wood to compress the mainspring when changing the internals. Or, you can put a punch in a vise and push down on it.

[El_Ron1]

It is about a 1.75 on the difficulty scale.:thumbsup:

[Laszlo]

I would also add that make sure the hammer is in uncocked position.

And do use the rubber band around the grip safety, otherwise the sear spring will fall out and it won`t go back without further disassembly of the firearm.